Calls, or notes from school, said: “Your daughter was reading while walking in the hall – again!” “I saw your son crossing Maine Street – reading!” I’m still grateful that the only time one of my children collided with anything of note, it was a parked car and there wasn’t a book in sight.

I get it. I spent as much of my grade school years behind a book as I could. My older sister, normally disinterested in the family bookworm, found entertainment in putting her hand between my eyes and the book, waggling her fingers until I’d swat her away. “She hit me!” went up the cry, and I’d have to admit I’d hit first. First-to-hit was all that mattered, and I’d lose the book. It never seemed quite fair.

As a parent, I understand how appealing the first-to-hit rule is. If hitting first is always wrong, no matter the provocation, it’s also blessedly easy to enforce. But is it always right?

This weekend Richard Spencer and his little tribe of boy-men playing Nazi marched in Charlottesville, again. They aren’t welcome there. They aren’t welcome anywhere. This is good news about our nation. Right now, the minority unjustly rules the majority, and we’ve installed an unpopular and increasingly cranky toddler-in- Chief, but most of us have seen “The Sound of Music.” We still know that white nationalists are the bad guys. The fact that they carry Tiki torches is another strong sign. Real men don’t carry Tiki torches.

Enter antifa. Antifa have their own issues. For one, how do you even say “antifa?” It stands for “antifascists,” so you’d think you’d say it like “antidote.” Sure enough, antifa call themselves ANtifa. Fox News and the cranky Oval Office occupant call them “anTIfa” which somehow makes antifa sound foreign and effete. Then there’s the fact that they wear bandanas. In “The Sound of Music,” nobody wears bandanas. The good guys wear curtains and nun habits. Antifa may be onto something.

Antifa oppose white nationalism. When Tiki boys march, antifa show up, sometimes using tactics to physically block white supremacists from marching or uttering their hateful rhetoric. Antifa sometimes violate the “first-to-hit” rule, mostly in spectacular smackdowns of actual proud Nazis, and in property damage. But read the accounts of what happened in Charlottesville, in August, where antifa served as protectors, playing defense, putting themselves between Spencer’s Tiki boys and the peaceful people the Tiki boys assaulted.

Self-declared white nationalists openly march in the streets. Young people don black bandanas and oppose them. One peaceful protestor killed, others beaten, by white nationalists this summer. For all their perceived moral ambiguity, antifa are clearly standing up to oppose a rising, frightening tide of violent white supremacy. Why is this division happening?

For years, elected officials like Gov. LePage have played upon our worst racial fears, stereotyping people of color and minority religions. Attacks on our social safety programs over the 7 years we’ve endured LePage led by casting recipients as unworthy, illegal, or female. LePage’s ability to play upon the intrinsic bigotry we all possess leaves Maine more divided and less willing to work in community with one another. Little wonder the Klan, emboldened, seeks recruits again in our towns.

Trump’s blatant racism, sexism, and religious animus did not deter 26 percent of eligible voters – still, a minority – from casting their lot with him. Staffing the White House with white nationalists like Steve Bannon gave the nod to white nationalists like Spencer. And Trump’s whipping up of racial division continues. The White House spent hundreds of thousands of our taxpayer dollars for a show-protest of a peaceful NFL protest of the unpunished deaths of black people at the hands of police officers. Meanwhile, the White House said nothing about Spencer’s Tiki boys marching again in our streets. Silent kneeling ball players are condemned but not white nationalists with a history of killing and verbal threats?

A house divided against itself will not stand. There is one notable beneficiary of a divided United States: Vladimir Putin. Following clashes in Berkeley, Twitter accounts linked to Russian interests went to work, emphasizing the violence, distorting facts to portray antifa as first-to-hit. A petition to the White House to list antifa as a terrorist organization went viral in September. Analysis of social media users pushing the petition led to Russian automated bots, posting thousands of times an hour.

Antifa is opposing white supremacists and is in turn opposed by Russian interests, who aligned to gift a technical victory to a man who undermines our international standing. Antifa may not dress the part, and their tactics may make me wince. But judging by their enemies, they may be the antihero for our time. Which says a lot.

Jackie Sartoris is a former Brunswick Town Councilor